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Zoning Laws Are The Real Culprit

© Michael Morrissey

Buildings, both historic and modern are built from plans. These plans are drawn up by architects who follow the plans of the physical world and the plans of society. The physical world’s plans, although not written down specifically, are commonly known to all people as the laws of physics. The laws of society, which are written down yet are known by very few, are zoning laws.

If we want to preserve historic structures and historic neighborhoods, if we want to build a world where it makes sense to rehabilitate older buildings, if we want our towns and cities to grow with and among the older central city instead of replacing it, then our real preservation task is to preserve the older zoning laws.

City planning of the past tended to produce towns and cities which, either on purpose or by accident, followed these three general guidelines;
1. Neighborhoods are built around commerce, culture and government.
2. The basic needs of everyday life are within walking distance.
3. The streets are laid out in a pattern and they all interconnect.

There is an overriding theme among these three, and that is mixed use. Residential buildings are among and next to commercial buildings which are among and next to public buildings.

City planning of today tends to produce towns and cities which follows these general guidelines;
1. A car is a necessity.
2. All buildings require ample parking.

Current thinking in zoning circles is just the opposite of the mixed use theme, and that is, single use. Large tracts of land are set aside for a single specific purpose. These sections, sometimes called bubbles or pods, are connected by a few feeder roads. The separation forces people to drive everywhere. Every house has a driveway, and every apartment building has a parking lot. The underlying assumption is that everyone has a car. The city is built around that common denominator.

Buildings surrounded by an asphalt parking lot, accesible off of a multilane highway are simply not compatible with a store front lined sidewalk on a quarter mile long two way street. Unfortunately, the former is growing at an alarming rate while the latter is dying. The pressures of increasing populations and economic viability coupled with current zoning laws are conspiring against the historic buildings and neighborhoods so many of us cherish.

The infinite wisdom of the overeducated shortsighted city planners of the recent past have even gone so far as to outlaw the very design of the cities and towns people favor. Given a choice a large majority of people would chose San Francisco, Charlestown, or Alexandria as their place of residence over the mall infested black topped suburbs spreading out across the rest of the country. Yet the zoning laws of so many of our towns and cities make the construction of a San Francisco, Charlestown or Alexandria illegal.

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